Geoff Thomas: Aren't you glad you had one last fish?

Photo / Brett Phibbs.

How often do you spend half a day fishing for little reward, then try a last spot before going home and hit the jackpot?

It doesn't happen very often, but it did for one Auckland family last weekend. "We had been catching a few small snapper on the worm beds off Rakino Island, and packed up to head home," said Steve Devine. "I saw a bit of sign on the sounder in the Rakino Channel so we stopped for a last fish. I had six baits left - pieces of pilchard - and we got six snapper, one after the other. They were all about 10 pounds (4.5kg)," he said. The hot spot was on the northern edge of the channel, off a point.

"But of course you could go back there tomorrow and miss out," he added.

The Rangitoto and Motuihe Channels are starting to produce, particularly on the edges in the evenings. Fishing during the day in the bright conditions can be hard, although there is no shortage of small snapper.

Some large snapper have been taken on the west side of the Noises and Rakino with fish up to 7kg caught on soft baits, and two monsters weighing 8.7kg and 9kg were reported from 3km north of Rangitoto Island.

Pink and pearl soft baits are two colours which are producing, with darker colours better in low light.

While lures are usually fished from a drifting boat, they can be fished at anchor by casting well out and letting the current take the lure until it hits the bottom, then working it slowly back to the boat.

There are fish coming from all over the Firth of Thames and from both sides. The occasional snapper to 8kg has been reported from the mussel farms. Experienced anglers fish close to the mussel lines but off the end, staying clear of the side lines, and they tie up rather than drop an anchor.

A small grapnel thrown over one of the lines will hold the boat, and if an anchor is dropped it will invariably snag in the mooring lines and will have to be cut off. Out in the firth in 20-22 metres there are good snapper over the clean bottom, and fresh bait is better for targeting larger fish.

People are heading out in large numbers, and one angler counted 47 vehicles towing boats between Clevedon and Kawakawa Bay at 4.30 one morning last weekend.

Fishing on the Clevedon Flats is starting to pick up, and that should only improve as summer kicks in. One bait which hooks the occasional big moocher is a mullet head with the guts hanging off, or a kahawai head and guts. This is rigged on a 10/0 hook, and lobbed back well away from the boat.

The water around the Mercury group of islands has been murky with brown-green algae and fishing has not been easy, but the deep pinnacles around the Aldermen Islands are fishing better with plenty of kingfish.

In fact kings have turned up in good numbers all around the offshore islands and reefs on both coasts right up to Northland. The new method of stick baiting is fast proving popular and, like soft baiting when it started, those who have mastered the technique are reporting some astounding results.

The bronze whaler sharks have also turned up, and the big females which have moved into inshore waters to have their babies can be a nuisance for snapper fishermen as they like to attack hooked fish, leaving only a part of the snapper on the hook or one which has been savaged. Sometimes a hooked fish just takes off steadily and the line breaks, which will signal a shark attack.

Snapper fishing has gone quiet in the Bay of Islands, with plenty of bird activity but not a lot of fish under them. If schooling fish can be located the fishing picks up, but the big snapper seemed to have moved off. There are good numbers of john dory in the bay, and kingfish are running out on the 71-metre reef. Skipjack tuna can be found from 200 metres out to 1000 metres, along the edges of the temperature breaks.

Pohutukawa trees in the Bay of Plenty are in full bloom around Tauranga, but not further east. Folklore suggests prospects indicate a good summer when the pohutukawas bloom early, and they are also a sign that the snapper are spawning.

Surfcasters are catching snapper when they fish into the night on the beaches, and those in boats are finding fish at around 20 metres.

The biggest trout in the recent international fishing contest at Rotorua weighed just under 4.6kg, and jigging on Lake Rotoiti is starting to fire with fish between 3kg and 4kg.

More fishing action can be found on the new internet television channel, fishnhunt.tv